I have completed a story called, for now, "Take This Man." A woman and her fiance hire a wedding planner who is so gorgeous, pleasant, and perfect that the fiance might fall in love with her. The woman tries to keep the two from meeting, but they do and fall in love. In anger, the woman curses them and the effect of the curse is rather amusing....
It's a lighthearted little thing and I wanted it to be serial especially because it's a film serial in my head (not exactly a TV show.) However, production would be impossible because of a shortage of male thespians available to me, as well as actual production materials like cameras and editing software and such.
I wrote it first as a story then I was able to convert it to a screenplay (unfortunately, I had to resort to using a narrator. Fortunately, he's a good one.) If I ever produce it, it may need further modification, but I like the way it is now.
Murder at Vinnie's, as my murder mystery dinner show is now called, is going to be performed at my school by our Mock Trial team! This is my second work to actually be formally produced, so I'm excited! =D We're selling tickets, serving pizzas, and everything! Joelle Zigman will even be performing with Semira Woldmichael!
You will be attending the opening night of Vinnie's Pizzeria as well as attending his murder in cold cheese. With so many suspects--the son he neglected, the sisters he enslaved, the wife he cheated on, the mistress he wouldn't make his wife, the chef he cheated out of thousands of dollars and more--no one is sure who did it. But you can help solve the crime and eat pizza, too!
It's a common concept, but I enjoy it. I play one of the Kazakhstani sisters who were illegally imported. =) We're the waitresses, lol And it's a comedy, so this will be fun!
I've been working on college apps and homework etc. etc., but I've also been working on things to try to enter into competitions! =D
Plays: I have a play that is currently called, "Morán" after the fictional kingdom it takes place in (shoutout to Alfred! lol.) However I'll probably change the title to something that focuses more on the actual plot. There are wild political struggles in Morán that begin when a wild man, Rex Ramiro, deposes the current ruler by killing him and his wife. His soldiers are about to rape the former princess, Adela Ramiro, when another soldier, Vicente Decena, steps in and becomes her guardian. She lets Decena help her but hates him for rebelling against her father and resents him for being her guardian although he is a stranger only a few years older. However, she fails to realize that he is actually her childhood friend who has been in love with her since they were playmates.
It's a lot of action in 20 minutes and I have to read it over and over to make sure it works. Script competitions are so hard because many scripts wouldn't work without really good actors and so much is unspoken but you have to write them as if they would be produced and too much written direction is annoying and rude. Everything is Spanish and the kingdom was given a made-up name because I wanted to be temporally and geographically ambiguous--and what's more ambiguous than a Spanish-influenced country with political turmoil?
Also, I've been working on a 10-minute screenplay. It's so hard! It's the movie version of Grocery Shopping with My Girl, which works so much better as a movie because you'd see how Samuel (as I named him) reacts to everything the girl does. I'm afraid it's too much like My Sassy Girl. However, I changed the ending and it fits better now and makes the entire piece more significant. Now it actually asks the viewer a question! But I'm not quite satisfied with it yet.
Speaking of dissatisfaction, I have a lot to do and I'm so dissatisfied with myself despite what just sounded like productivity. It's selective, somewhat misplaced productivty.
Oh. And I have to write a newspaper article about the holidays. l. o. l.
I have found out more about how I write.
I get (the best) ideas while...
- Doing mundane things like walking place to place or, like everyone else, doing things in the bathroom.
- Feeling intense emotion. It's just not always easy to follow through on something as vague as emotion.
- Reading or viewing other works and being inspired.
- Being awake at night, either while lying on my bed or while sitting at my computer.
I work best...
- Writing an entire work in one sitting, or else I won't finish it. Which sometimes means working long stretches for long things like movie scripts or plays.
- On computers.
- Late at night.
- In absolute quiet. I can't even listen to music like I usually do.
- Writing the work as I go along rather than planned out--that is, if it's a first-time, original work.
- Using already-written stories or other materials, especially when writing scripts. It's just easier to adapt. This even applies to my stories.
Strengths...
- I can interrupt my train of thought to go do research on a name or something without breaking my flow.
- I have great friends who help me fill in gaps with random details.
- My affinity for food extends to my writing. Recently the distinctiveness and sight eccentricity in loving waffles with cheese has made it a convinient device, especially in love stories.
- Apparently I can capture moods and I can stumble on good lines.
Weaknesses...
- I can easily lose a storyline I love by working it out too far in advance in my mind.
- I really really suck at endings.
- I think my attempts at irony are too obvious.
- My characters' identities get lost in their roles sometimes...if that makes sense. - I wish I was better at titles. Seriously.
There are more things I found out, but I can't remember them now.
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